


Food From Home

by shenala



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 22:56:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18040670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shenala/pseuds/shenala
Summary: Prompt: Get her out of the kitchen before she makes us eat something!With a groan, Clint put his head in his hands before muttering through them, "The one time you don't listen to Nat is when food's involved. She can't cook. At all. I can cook better than her, and yes I'm aware that that's probably hard to believe. But you need to get her out of the kitchen before she makes us eat something!"[It's a little sappy. Okay, more than a little.]





	Food From Home

"Hey guys, " Clint called as he stepped out of the elevator into the Barnes-Rogers living room. The men in question didn't break concentration as they both raised a hand in greeting before continuing their "very important" Mario Kart battle (their description, not Clints). 

Slumping himself into an armchair to watch as the pair battled it out as physically off-screen as their digital counterparts; with elbows being wedged into ribs, toes stamped on, and at one point Steve being put into a headlock by Bucky, Clint looked around for any sign of his own partner-in-crime. 

"Where's Nat?" he asked, with just a hint of trepidation, when their game had ended and they prepared to start the next.

In return, he got a shrug from Barnes, and a thumb jerked towards the kitchen from Rogers. 

Surely they weren't suggesting that that's where she was? They wouldn't be so casual about that.. right? Clint silently worried to himself for a moment before his need to know won over. 

"As in, she's in the kitchen?" he clarified.

The brunette answered this time, "Yeah, she's cooking. Came in muttering in Russian then holed herself up in the kitchen with clear instructions not to bother her." 

"And you listened? You two? She said to leave her alone and you have?" Clint asked in clear disbelief. After all, this was Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. They needed no further explanation, just their names were usually enough to get a knowing nod in response from people who had encountered them as a pair. 

Now frowning, Bucky finally gave Clint his full attention, "Yes. When Natalia says to stay out of the kitchen, you stay out of the kitchen. Even Steve understands that." A sincere nod came from the man at his side. 

With a groan, Clint put his head in his hands before muttering through them, "The one time you don't listen to Nat is when food's involved. She can't cook. At all. I can cook better than her, and yes I'm aware that that's probably hard to believe. But you need to get her out of the kitchen before she makes us eat something!"

"I'm sure it can't be that bad Clint", Steve reasoned calmly, "it's Natasha, she wouldn't give us something awful to eat."

With a nod and a pointed finger in agreement Bucky added, "exactly, it would be like admitting a weakness." 

"Just you wait" was Clint's ominous final statement. 

It was only a few minutes later when the Black Widow left the kitchen, a plate of inconspicuous cookies in her hands. Which she promptly placed on the coffee table with a curt "eat" before settling herself onto the arm of the sofa to observe. 

The three men each reached forward to take one, Clint with obvious reluctance, Bucky without hesitation and Steve with a quick smile of thanks. 

The cookies looked normal, they felt normal in their hands and they even smelt decent, but it only took the one bite to realize that Clint had been right and that this was a big mistake. 

Steve's eyes immediately filled with tears and he desperately choked back the cough that was burning in his throat, while Bucky clenched his left fist as he forced himself to keep a neutral mask over his face and "just keep chewing dammit" became his mental chant. 

Clint, however, made no such effort. Spitting out the small amount of cookie he'd bitten off and throwing the rest of the biscuit back onto the plate with a clang. 

Natasha's only response to this was to turn to him with a single eyebrow raised, but Hawkeye didn't falter under her scrutiny, he'd been in this situation before. 

"Tasha, there's something wrong with the recipe, we'll try to fix it together and make them again later, yeah?" he reasoned gently but with a firm voice. 

As Steve and Bucky watched apprehensively, they were amazed to see the tension seep out of Natasha as she stood and walked over to the elevator, only stopping to pat Clint on the shoulder with a soft "Okay, thanks Clint" as she went. 

Once she'd left, the two super soldiers whipped their attention back to the archer, who merely shrugged at them before also standing to leave, "she cooks when she's homesick for a home she doesn't remember, it's never edible. She'll be fine when I make them with her. Thanks guys, catch ya later." 

Now alone with just the other for company, Bucky was quick to curl into Steve's embrace before softly asking, "what food makes you think of home?" 

Only a brief moment of silence passed between them before a murmured "lemons" came in response. 

Twisting in Steve's arms to face him, Bucky was frowning in confusion as he asked "lemons? Why?"

With a small smile and a faraway look in his eyes, Steve nuzzled into his partner's neck as he answered, "because lemons remind me of the way you used to smell, well one of the things, you used to suck on lemon candies when you'd been smoking because I would moan otherwise." 

After a quick scan of his memories, Bucky nodded, "yeah, lemon drops. Used to get 'em from Mr Hershkowitz on the corner, he'd give me a whole bag if I moved some boxes for him." Another short pause followed before he added, "Mine's peaches." 

This time it was Steve's turn to furrow his brow as he tried to find the connection. Before he could ask though, Bucky gave him the answer with a bright smile and even brighter eyes, "The first time I kissed you, you'd just eaten a peach slice. I'd managed to get a bent can from the docks, you acted like all your Christmases had come at once." With a laugh, he continued, "The first time I tasted one back in Bucharest I got hit by all these memories of this little ball of fury and how sweet he tasted. Took me a day or two to make the link to you, but for me, it's peaches because peaches mean you, and you're my home." Bucky was quite proud of the fact that his voice didn't waver even as tears started to build in his eyes.

Pressing a kiss to the brunette's temple, Steve pulled Bucky back into his arms and arranged them so that they were lying down on the sofa before pulling a blanket over them. "You're my home too," he whispered into soft, dark hair, "love you, Buck." 

The reply was muffled as Bucky had his face pressed deeply into the crook of Steve's neck but nothing could blur the words as he replied, "love you back, Stevie." 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, a couple of floors above the now napping pair, also on a sofa and wrapped up both in each other's embrace and a blanket, Clint was soothing with his own words of love as he stroked Natasha's fiery red hair. 

He knew nothing could remove the pain she felt from what she remembered, or in this particular case, what she didn't, but even if it meant eating a thousand awful attempts at cooking he'd do it without hesitation as long as he got to hold her close and tell her all the different recipes they were going to attempt together. 

"Can we try ginger biscuits?" came a quiet, almost meek, request. So unlike the woman who had spoken it that it would've been near-impossible to attribute had he not watched her lips form the words. 

Squeezing her even closer, Clint peppered her forehead with kisses and declared, "we're going to make the best ginger biscuits New York has ever seen, and then we're going to eat them all by ourselves and make all our friends jealous."


End file.
